Mourant du Feu & Jeune

Mourant du Feu & Jeune is an award-winning [ [http://www.mourant.com/section/2/index.html Welcome to Mourant - Mourant news ] ] , offshore magic circle law firm and the offshore law division of international, specialist services group, Mourant.

Mourant du Feu & Jeune is a commercial law firm specialising in international finance and commercial law for clients with offshore law requirements. The firm offers Jersey, Guernsey and Cayman legal advice from their offices in Cayman, Guernsey, Jersey, London and New York.

Principal Areas of Work

Banking; capital markets; funds; corporate/commercial; commercial dispute resolution; financial services business and regulation; trusts; M&A; employment; property.

Mourant also provides specialist administration services for private equity, hedge and property funds; SPVs and other corporate structures; private wealth structures.

In 2007, Chambers Global named Mourant du Feu & Jeune, Offshore Law Firm of the Year. [http://www.chambersandpartners.com/img/awards/GlobWinners2007.pdf]

Merger proposals

In late 2007, discussions became public about a proposed merger between Cayman Islands based Walkers and Mourants. Although mergers between offshore firms are relatively common, [Walkers had recently absorbed by merger a smaller Jersey firm, Crills, and Mourants had recently absorbed Cayman firm, Quin & Hampson.] it would be the first merger between two of the major global offshore players, creating by far the largest offshore law firm in the world. [ [http://www.thelawyer.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=129499&d=415&h=417&f=416 Official: Mourant and Walkers in merger talks - 22 October 2007 ] ] Details remain sketchy, although there has been much public speculation that Walkers may sell its highly profitable trust company arm, Walkers SPV, to Mourants' equity partners first, and then two legal practices would merge thereafter, although this has been publicly repudiated by sources at Walkers. [Most offshore law firms derive a significant element of their profitability from their affiliated trust companies.] Such a move would probably be financially deleterious to the non-equity partners of Walkers, and a defection by a salaried partner from Walkers to local rivals Maples and Calder early in the talks lent credibility to this view. [ [http://www.thelawyer.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=129682&d=415&h=417&f=416 Offshore market rocked by Mourant-Walkers merger - 29 October 2007 ] ] However, in Februar 2008 the two firms announced that they were no longer pursuing merger talks. [ [http://www.thelawyer.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=131118&d=pndpr&h=pnhpr&f=pnfpr Walkers and Mourant merger talks collapse - 11 February 2008 ] ]

References